SOUND SCIENTIST: MONOLAKE

Monolake is the closest thing techno has to a real scientist. Having started the Monolake project with Gerhard Behles in the late 90’s, Robert Henke, now the main player in the Project, has spent the past decade not only developing his expansive, layered sound, but also the software used to create it.

Simultaneously being a software engineer for Ableton, and techno’s first installation artist, means Henke has a unique view point on creating an all absorptive atmosphere in his music, creating music to be pondered over, absorbed or just felt. With a wealth of albums including 2001’s Gravity and the single track album Indigo_Transform from 2008, (not to mention the thirty minute replication of thunder) the Monolake project explores the boundaries of sound, whilst creating rhythmic structures crowds want to dance too.

With the full surround sound show coming to London as part of next weeks Eastern Electrics, we emailed the man himself to discuss his music.

Hyponik.com: First of all, what can we expect from your live show at Eastern Electrics next week? What does the full surround sound show consist of?
Robert Henke: Monolake never really was a ‘dance act’, we were always interested in expanding and experimenting with what one can do in a club. In cinema- and game-sound surround is used to define a clear spatial location of an object, like things happen behind you or on the left,
right etc… This would not work in club, but what multiple channels of audio can provide is a sense of depth and immersion. I am into the idea of creating a space that is bigger than the physical space provided by the club. The result might be subtile or huge, depending how willing you are to dive in.

H: How would you say your music as Monolake has progressed since your first Chain Reaction releases?
RB: I honestly don’t know. I am too close to the results to really see the development in a neutral way. The biggest differences for me is the quality of the live performances and some structural enhancements. Early tracks where really “tracks”. Later I got more into pieces, that
have more internal structure.

H: Where do you see the Monolake project heading in the future? What is there still to explore?
RB: The great thing about any kind of art is the fact that you deeper you dive, the more details can be uncovered. I do not expect myself to come up with something revolutionary new, I am just happy with working on the borders of what I already do. I could spend the next twenty
years re-working my existing music and not become bored…

Dubstep has blown up into a worldwide scene now – peers of your like Torsten Pröfrock and Ricardo have dabbled in the sound and even remixed dubstep tracks. What do you think the appeal of the music is? Do you have much interest in the genre? Why?
HB: What grabbed my interest in this genre was the new variety it created. While especially minimal techno became more and more a formula with no sonic or structural development anymore, suddenly a new genre combines known elements in fresh and new ways. I am very excited by that. Of course there is lots of very simmilar sounding dubstep out there these days, but overall i see more variety and experimentation here than in most other current electronic (dance) music genres. I am inspired by this alot, and to my great surprise all it needed for my music to fit in such a context was to change the tempo to match the dubstep tempo.

H: You could describe dub music as an ongoing experiment. Is experimentation in your music HB: important to you? Would you describe the Monolake project as an experiment?
It is an experiment in a sense that I try to find something new each time I work and that I change little things an observe what happens. It is not an experiment in a crazy professor sense where one does not really know if things will explode or not…

H: How would you describe your music as Monolake and the music you make as Robert Henke? Why the distinction?
HB: Monolake is not strongly conceptual, it is music that should work for many listening situations and provide a nice background. Robert Henke is the more serious side of things, the playground for experiments and a documentation of my research.

H: Does your work as a software engineer cross over into your musical work?
HB: Too much actually. Sometimes I wish I would know my tools less and could be more free in just using them. On the other side, it helps to get predictable results, which is especially of importance if there is limited time to finish things. I have a strong idea of what is possible and what not. I pretty much knew how to realize the Monolake surround live show technically before even touching my computer.

H: You’ve concentrated a lot on interactive installations – what is it that interests you about humans interactivity with sound?
HB: sound art in museums suffers from the same problem as video art: time based art does not work if visitors can come and go any time. You are always either too early or too late. However, as soon as the result is a direct effect of an interaction, things change. Suddenly the visitor is in control again.

H: What problems do think are encountered when playing a laptop set or through software such as Ableton? I sometimes see a breakdown between performer and audience, which effects the experience as a whole. Would your interactive work be a way around this?
HB: Ableton Live makes it possible to become extremely lazy. A performer can come up with something that sounds okay without doing much. The audience of course somehow realizes this and becomes bored. But the software also allows the performer to do the most outstanding manipulations of structure and sound. It is just a lot more work, and it demands that the performer spends some time and energy to prepare. I spent a lot of time building my own hardware to control Ableton Live, and it pays of. I play an instrument on stage, and everyone at least somehow has a chance to notice.

H: Specifically, what records influenced the creation of the Monolake project?
HB: This is a very difficult question to answer. What really influence Gerhard and me at the beginning was a mixture of 70s electronics, french computer music (IRCAM), pop, classical minimal music (Reich, Glass) and of course early techno. Being in Berlin in the 90’s was extremely essential for us in many ways.

H: What was it that first stimulated your interest in sound and sound design?
HB: I really since I can think was amazed by abstract art and painting. I also was always interested in engineering and building stuff. At some point I discovered electronic music (Jean Michel Jarre) and from that point on it was clear to me where to go…

Do you like performing in London?
HB: Yes! And I am nervous, since I want it to be good.

Catch Monolake playing on the BLOC stage at Eastern Electrics on Saturday 2nd May, and don’t forget Dublime are hosting a stage with Brendon Moeller, Congo Natty, D-Bridge, Reso and much, much more. For £10 tickets, simply quote ‘DUBLIME’ when purchasing your tickets here.